The researchers say that the three skeletons are a woman aged 20-25, a man aged 35-39 and a man aged 40-44.

One of the skeletons appeared to show signs of surgery, with a trepanation drilled into his skull.

Dr. Zeinab Hasheesh, Director of the Department of the Skeleton Remains Studies at the Ministry of Antiquities, said, ‘This surgery is the oldest surgical intervention ever known since pre-history but was rare in Egypt.’

Dr. Ayman Ashmawy, Head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Sector said that the strange reddish water in the sarcophagus is probably from the mixing of the sewage water that filled the sarcophagus with the remains of the skeletons’ wrappings.